Fifty years ago this month, The Plaza in New York was the first hotel to discover just how much trouble rock stars on tour could be after hosting the Beatles during their first US tour.
The Beatles arrived at the Plaza in February 1964 and stayed for six days. Their reservations were made under their real names, which, because they were largely unknown in America, didn't alert the operator that a tidal wave of teens was about to descend on the grand hotel. The Beatles stayed in suites 1260, 1263, 1264 and 1273 – all small suites in 1964 – and were on the 58th Street side of the hotel "so they wouldn't be as noticeable if they looked out the window," one internal memo stated.
One hotel employee was desperately trying to reach the Beatles manager Brian Epstein by phone and couldn't get through. She raced up to the Beatles' twelfth floor suite where she was outraged to see one of the photographers snapping pictures of a Beatle jumping on the bed in his room – and coaching him to go ever higher.
"Shocked and horrified, she turned on the lens man with the full force of her Irish temper. "How dare you do this to The Plaza? Why are you manufacturing these sensational pictures? This boy is probably afraid not to go along with the press, and just look what he's doing to our beautiful satin covers. Nobody acts this way at The Plaza, nobody, not even the Beatles. Now stop this nonsense this very minute," Eve Brown wrote.
As gentle applause issued from newsmen who had been observing from the sidelines, the photographer, crushed beneath the fine fury, quickly slunk away."
Source: Excerpt reprinted with permission from "Waldorf Hysteria, Hotel Manners, Misbehaviours & Minibars" by Arbon Publishing.
